


Love, for the Moment

by chibinocho



Series: The Moments [1]
Category: Lost Future of Pepperharrow, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Developing Relationship, Gay Sex, M/M, Self-Doubt, Shameless Smut, Stockings, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Victorian Attitudes, shameless fluff, they are both dense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24186649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibinocho/pseuds/chibinocho
Summary: Mori doesn't want to risk what he has with Thaniel by making random declarations of love but there are particular moments when he wonders if there's more between them than an arrangement between landlord and tenant. And one particular Christmas he wants to break his silence more than ever.
Relationships: Keita Mori/Thaniel Steepleton
Series: The Moments [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745614
Comments: 10
Kudos: 70





	Love, for the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> So as it turns out I cannot leave this fandom alone especially when stuck in a lockdown ... and I didn't last very long before I needed to write these two getting it on properly and was then set a challenge from a friend to write it from Mori's perspective, which is harder than I realised.
> 
> Still, who doesn't love a bit of Christmas smut? Even in May ...
> 
> This is set post-Watchmaker and pre-Pepperharrow - before *spoiler* Mori starts to get weird about dice and coin flips

There are times where Mori is sure Thaniel feels more for him than simply lust and doing his landlord a favour. There are moments when Mori wonders if he is more to Thaniel than simply a friend and a free room. His clairvoyance cannot tell him of Thaniel's feelings; he is not a mind reader, however much he wishes he was. Thaniel is also a man who is an enigma of constant mind changes and there are so many threads and threads of futures and intentions that Mori cannot be sure what Thaniel intends in his actions in order to try and read his true feelings.

All Mori can do is use what he knows. And a young, handsome, talented, English pianist in his twenties is highly unlikely to fall in love with a scarred, Japanese clairvoyant samurai now in his forties. No matter how much Mori wants it to happen.

Although there are sometimes where he wonders.

  
  


It was Christmas. Only weeks after Mori refused to let Six return the workhouse and they had both begun work on the attic room for her. Thaniel had worked tirelessly in the evenings, constructing a pallet bed and bringing a large trunk up the loft ladder for her few belongings whilst Mori had fixed wires from the workshop up to the attic with a small generator so Six would have light. Sometimes Mori wondered if he had inflicted Six a little too strongly on Thaniel and Thaniel was simply humouring his whimsy but the sheer effort he was willing to put in to make her happy and comfortable made Mori’s heart warm.

It was times like these where he wondered - and tried to see a future or intention that would tell him - if Thaniel really did think of him more than just his friend and landlord. That there was more to their arrangement than just the physical gratification and a free room. After all, Mori had practically signed Thaniel up to be a father figure without directly consulting him and the man seemed to simply accept this.

However, it had been Thaniel’s idea to open the attic and give Six a room and a proper bed. And he had given up his own bed for Six the week they worked on the room, indicating he would sleep in the parlour with blankets but ending up spending nearly every night in Mori’s bed. There had to be more. 

Mori wished he could tell.

It was Christmas Eve. Six and Mori were sat in companionable quiet with only the ticking of the clocks and clockwork around them. Mori was building an intricate carriage clock - a royal commission - which was to form a wedding gift from Princess Beatrice to her future husband. The clock chimed the hour not just through a pleasant noise but the clockwork opened into a series of intricate clockwork flowers which opened and bloomed. Six was also sat with him, painfully copying out Japanese numbers and letters in columns next to their English counterparts. She had proven an eager student with regards to learning to read and write and doing two languages at once was just another challenge to overcome. She was a veritable sponge of a child. And a sponge who was trying to prove on many levels why she did not need to be returned to the workhouse.

As Mori turned on the lights to help them work in the semi-darkness, the door clattered open and Thaniel came inside, stamping the snow off his boots and shaking out his hat. He had been called in to the Foreign Office for an extra day to deal with a backlog from one of the broken telegraph machines, which Thaniel had sincerely appreciated the forewarning Mori had given him as he had managed to catch the post the day before for Annabel and his nephews christmas package.

“It’s Christmas Eve, why are you working?” he asked cheerfully. Mori admired the rosy flush in his cheeks from the cold. He removed his glasses for a better view.

Six shrugged.

“It’s a day. Do we have to go to the church again?”

“Father Christmas comes tonight.” answered Thaniel. Gleeful intentions flooded from him like skeins of light. Mori had known Thaniel was planning this but also knew Six’s reaction already.

“He isn’t real.” said Six putting down her pen. “It’s make-believe for rich children to get even more things.”

Mori couldn’t hide his smile both at Six’s declaration and Thaniel’s slight deflation. He reached over to take the pen from her indicating that the work was over.

“I believe in this case Thaniel may wish to remedy this.” he rose off his stool and felt his spine creak in discomfort at the sudden shifting, they had been sat in the workshop for far too long. Thaniel looked crestfallen and at the sudden intention that he should return the stocking, Mori’s heart went out to him, fighting the urge to simply step forward to envelop him in his arms.

Six frowned. She was unaccustomed to any form of gift, given that even her plain tattered dress and ill-fitting hand me down shoes given by the workhouse was expected to be paid off with her paltry earnings, she had decided that nothing was ever given without consequences. So when Mori and Thaniel had first started purchasing her new clothes, well-fitting shoes and belongings, she had been both angry and horrified because - as she bluntly told them - she was never going to pay her debt off. It had taken a good few weeks of careful cajoling from Thaniel and solid logic from Mori for Six to realise that she wasn’t going anywhere and her new clothes were her own to keep as she would be needing them if she was going to be seen out in public with either man.

Christmas was going to need logic.

“Roku-chan, Thaniel celebrates Christmas and believes it is right to give out gifts to those he cares about under the guise of it being Father Christmas. It is rude not to accept them.” he could already feel Six’s intentions of losing her temper and was impressed when she chose to stay calm. He had always appreciated her straightforward mind, it was easy to read.

Thaniel reached into the paper bag he was carrying and pulled out a bundle of fabric. He shook it out to reveal an oversized sock. It was knitted in a garish red and white striped pattern.

“A stocking. Mrs Fanshawe knitted it for me.” said Thaniel. “You put it at the end of your bed tonight.”

There was a further twist of an intention and several futures sprang up but were suddenly muddied by many more, Mori struggled to read them clearly.

“How about on my ladder?” said Six immediately. Thaniel nodded and Mori could feel the sudden clear thread of the future of him doing just that. His excitement in doing it was so palpable that Mori felt warm. He wasn’t sure either but he knew Thaniel planned more this evening but his ideas were so jumbled that Mori still couldn’t work them out. The thought that he didn’t know made him simultaneously nervous and excited.

After dinner, Six went up early, taking one of Mori’s clockwork manuals with her, pointedly reminding Thaniel about the stocking and it needing to be on the ladder as she did so. Although she didn’t say a word about Christmas, both men noticed the excited erratic steps as she ascended the staircase.

“I don’t think she is going to sleep for a while.” said Thaniel, bringing out a small plate of mince pies and an orange studded with cloves which tinted the air with a spicy scent.. “We may have to wait. Every year Annabel’s boys try to stay up later and later.” he reached across to refill Mori’s glass with the mulled wine he had put out to prepare earlier that day. Mori was touched Thaniel remembered the Japanese etiquette for drinking by filling Mori’s glass for him and he reached over to return the favour..

“No. She will eventually. She thinks she will hear the clock strike nine but will be asleep before the clocks finish chiming.” he toasted Thaniel, sipped his glass before pushing a neatly-wrapped pair of parcels across the table.

“Add them to her stocking.” he said. “It’s a clockwork light and some pieces for her to continue work on her generator.” 

“Kei…” said Thaniel and his voice was thick with pleasure. Mori liked to hear Thaniel say his name in that way. No one ever had. He had always been Mori, Baron Mori, Mr Mori, Lord Mori and very very rarely, Keita but never a nickname. It had slipped out unexpectedly one evening as Mori had been about to go to bed and Thaniel had wanted to ask - of all things - about picking up some groceries and called out to him. Kei. The name had fallen between them like silk and slid around Mori's heart like a fusee chain holding it tight against him.

Mori would never tire of hearing it said.

And he would move entire civilisations to hear it for as long as possible.

They played Go for a while over mugs of mulled wine, talking about their respective days over the polished black and white counters. After getting through the backlog of telegraphs through the fixed machine, Thaniel had spent much of his day playing carols and pub songs on the piano at Fanshaw's request whereas Mori had spent his designing and building the royal carriage clock and walking Six through the mechanism. He talked through the design he planned and final construction. It always amazed him how Thaniel listened so intensely to him when he spoke. Mori loved those times; where Thaniel looked only at him. He wished he had more to say. 

If Mori had had the nerve and the surety in that rare future that anything he said would keep Thaniel with him forever, he would have told him everything. About how he loved the way Thaniel hummed at the piano. How he could paint sound in a kaleidoscope of colour. About how he sat on the floor by Six's bed reading to her for hours when she shook under the blankets with nightmares and maintained she wasn't crying. About how Thaniel's happiness was so important to Mori that he was planning to have the lead pianist at the Savoy Theatre become delayed by his wife going into labour in Buckingham so Thaniel would have to step in to play Beethoven's 9th symphony. About how he couldn't sleep until he heard Thaniel's soft treads on the stairs or knock at his door. About how Thaniel was his friend. Not just his friend. Mori wished he had the words for what they were. What they could be. 

Mori wanted to tell him everything but would tell him nothing in order to keep him.

Mori had long ago learned that his words and prophecies had too much power. Telling Thaniel his feelings would only push uncertainty into their futures together. Just to have Thaniel near was enough.

No matter what.

"Kei? You feeling okay? You don't look well."

Mori snapped out of his reveries to see Thaniel coming around the table to look at him. He looked worried but his cheeks wore that rosy flush from the mulled wine. He bent down and with cool fingers reached out and pressed against Mori's forehead and Mori felt a shock of excitement roll down his spine.

"I am well." He murmured, tilting his head. "You brew a potent mulled wine, that's all. I might need to lie down."

There were always those wonderful moments in their intimacy where Thaniel tried to decide between his courses of action - often picturing scenes and futures that were so downright erotic that Mori drew breath - before simply thinking  _ fuck it _ . Mori lived for those times; this crystal clear set future that left him breathless, flushed with arousal as what was to come. 

Thaniel's lips were on his and he was already responding. A large warm hand closed on his waist and he allowed himself to be drawn up into the kiss. Mori finally allowed his hands to come up to Thaniel's arms and shoulders. Time and futures seemed to ebb away from Mori as he lost himself within Thaniel's desires. Thaniel seemed to be more intense than usual and for a moment Mori thought there was much more to the. than mere dalliance between acquaintances.

"I want … Can we..." said Thaniel breaking his thoughts by tracing kisses down his neck, near his ear.

"I know … yes." Mori replied and of course he did know but still allowed himself to be led by the hand up the steep, creaking staircase that was worse than any nightingale floor. Thaniel stopped by the attic ladder to lay Six's stocking against it before he continued his passage along the small landing. Thaniel took Mori to his own room and closed the door gently behind them. The room was half light and half shadow in the single flickering electric light and amber glow of the fire but with a shimmer that came from the frost whorled on the window. Thaniel hastily closed the curtains, shielding them from possibly prying eyes before he set to work on Mori's clothing, intent on exposing him to the warm golden light.

"Christ, I want you." Thaniel said, his voice hoarse with desire as he slipped off Mori’s braces and worked at the buttons of Mori's shirt.

Mori had little prudish notions of his own body given his upbringing in Yokohama where most of the castle was surrounded by hot springs. However, Thaniel's drawing away of each layer of fabric seemed to expose parts of his very soul. He was passionate tonight, leaving feather-soft kisses along each part of Mori’s skin as it was bared and flinging his clothes away like they were an inconvenience. Hands traced along his legs, his sides, his belly and his back, fingers tracing the scars that littered his body from a lifetime of experience, including his injuries from the explosion that had thrown him from the roof. Thaniel explored them, traced them, tasted them. It felt like Mori was being worshipped and he dared not hope this was something more than simple physical desire.

They walked in a slow dance back towards the bed, Mori almost nude except for his open shirt, creating a strange contrast with Thaniel who was still dressed. Mori reached to pull Thaniel’s festive green necktie loose and let the soft silk slide between his fingers. Thaniel’s fingers covered his own as they loosened buttons, pulled strings and exposed his own body to the warm air. Mori took a moment to admire Thaniel’s form in the golden light. He was tall and broad with defined planes of muscle from his boxing and early life as the son of a gamekeeper and was now built like a finely carved statue. Mori tried not to recall the future where that strong body was weakened by illness. That nauseous feeling of foreboding threatened to overwhelm him but Thaniel's deft fingers threading through his hair and pulling him into another searing kiss managed to pull him from the darkness.

Thaniel brought them both down onto the bed and knelt over him, his chest heaving. One of the more interesting aspects of his clairvoyance was that Mori could physically react to intentions without anyone doing anything and he unconsciously arched his back at the thought of being penetrated by Thaniel.

"Are you okay with this? We don't-"

"I want to."

Thaniel looked surprised at the blunt response but recovered fast enough to lean over to retrieve the small glass bottle of oil they used from the nightstand. He then recommenced his tender kisses down Mori's body, skimming across his belly, his hips and - without pausing - took Mori's hardness into his mouth.

When they had first started this, Thaniel had been fumbling and nervous. His sole sexual experience before Mori had been an awkward tumble with a barmaid after hours during his first month in London. He had relied on Mori initially to guide him through their initial mutual pleasuring - on Thaniel’s wedding night nonetheless - as they moved against each other seeking release. And as they moved on to more forbidden pleasures, Thaniel had been the passive partner, happy to let Mori take him, lead him and show him. However - as his learning of Japanese had demonstrated - he was a quick study and a generous man and Mori had known that eventually Thaniel would want to return the favour so to speak.

What Mori hadn't expected was his own reaction.

An oil-slicked finger slid into him as Thaniel's cheeks hollowed and Mori struggled to form a coherent thought. A second finger joined the first and with that warm mouth engulfing him, Mori felt a wave of affection so strong he almost hit his peak instantly. Every intention and future issuing from Thaniel was about Mori and what he could do to bring Mori pleasure and each other those futures was a white-hot brand across Mori's very soul. 

Mori had lain with women - and men - before: an early lifetime of craving company before meeting his Thaniel became a reality but nothing had ever come close to this. Thaniel was tenderly playing him like he played his operettas and symphonies and Mori felt loved. So many people had wanted Keita Mori for what Keita Mori could do for them; Thaniel seemed to just want Keita Mori for himself alone. And at that moment with Thaniel's hot mouth bobbing over his prick and three fingers now moving inside him, Mori could believe - wanted to believe - it was love.

"Ready?" Came that warm, beautiful voice, he had heard it so often filling his futures that he never wanted to be without it. Mori lifted his head from the pillow and nodded.

And then Thaniel was inside him and it was an exquisite tightrope of pleasure and pain. He felt stretched and full, ever more so with hands raising his legs to settle over Thaniel’s strong arms. He heard his own voice gasp as the motion shifted his hips higher and Thaniel's prick even deeper in his body. Thaniel laced his fingers through Mori’s seeking reassurance that what he did was okay and Mori wondered what colour his exclamation had been.

“You sure?” came his murmur, throaty and delicious.

The sudden possible future that Thaniel may just stop this for fearing of hurting him was so shocking that Mori gripped his arm with his free hand.

“Please … please carry on. Sorry, I am fine. It has … been a while.” 

Thaniel gave a distinct hum of laughter and lent forwards to kiss Mori’s collarbone in apology and feathered kisses up his neck to claim his lips again. His hips surged forward of their own volition forcing a pleasure-filled moan from Mori and they fell into the familiar rhythm of sex. Thaniel was glorious in the half light of the light bulb, almost glowing as he moved above and inside Mori. Mori was now gripping his arms like a drowning man, muttering in Japanese, never wanting this deep connection to end between them.

Then Thaniel reached between them, wrapped his hand around Mori's member and stroked him. With one swipe of his thumb across the head, Mori came undone in a cry of Thaniel’s name, panting through his pleasure as Thaniel gripped his thighs, threw his head back and reached his own glorious peak.

“Oh Christ … Keita.”

They remained that way for a while as Mori's legs slid down and Thaniel dropped onto his elbows either side of Mori's head, trapping him into a final kiss as he withdrew from him. With some reluctance Mori was the first to reach for his handkerchief but it was Thaniel who cleaned them both before they lay back together in the silence of the night, chests heaving and bodies still sticky with sweat despite the chill in the air. Mori felt content and sated, lying against Thaniel’s shoulder.

“Merry Christmas, Kei.” said Thaniel softly. Mori felt too sleepy and lazy to make sense of the muddled swathe of futures coming to his mind.

"Hmm?"

"It's past midnight." Thaniel's voice was silk-soft against his temple. "Got you a stocking too. It's under the bed."

Mori frowned as Thaniel's words suddenly became clear and he slowly sat up. His hips throbbed pleasantly at the motion.

"A stocking?" Suddenly Thaniel’s jumbled excitement from before came clear.

"Yeah. Put it there when I put Six to bed. You can get it. I'll let you."

Mori was stunned. Not so much at the prospect of being given a Christmas stocking but that Thaniel had managed to conceal it from him at all. It was one of the few times in his life where he had been surprised. The thought that Thaniel had made all this effort to do something kind for him made his eyes sting.

"How did you manage it?"

Thaniel looked contrite.

"I'm afraid I used Grace's technique and used a coin or a dice or a Go piece for all the decisions." He looked apologetic but also slightly pleased. "I wanted to try and surprise you in a good way for a change is that okay? 

He looked suddenly so earnest that Mori wanted to laugh. It was true Grace had used coin tosses to try and manipulate him - she wasn't the first and unfortunately wouldn't be the last - but this was truly the first time where someone had manipulated Mori to do something good for him.

"No. I mean yes, it's … it's a kind thing." He wished he could say what he felt in more depth. Thaniel gestured to the stocking.

"You want to open it?"

Mori leaned over the bed and true to his word, Thaniel had indeed left a stocking there. Another oversize knitted stock, this time in dark red with a gold ribbon threaded through to hold it shut. Mori lifted it onto the bed and pulled the ribbon open to release it’s bounty.

"This is wonderful." He said softly and his surprise was genuine. He had been surprised so little in his life and given heartfelt gifts even less that he was at a loss to express his gratitude. He had detected before that Thaniel wanted to surprise him but he had struggled to ascertain what it actually was.

The stocking contained all the traditional nuts and fruit that Mori recalled seeing on the whimsical watercolour Christmas cards sent by other businesses, however Thaniel had added more. He had enclosed a small wooden box that when Mori looked inside it had several sweet smelling wagashi inside, all different shapes and colours, nestled snug in coloured paper wrappers. This was followed by a small stoneware bottle that identified itself on kanji as shochu. Further rummaging yielded a pair of finely knitted gloves the colour of midnight and monogrammed with his initials. Finally, there was also a rolled up piece of paper down the side of the sock and Mori withdrew it carefully and unfurled it to see a small watercolour painting, which was an abstract riot of cheerful colours.

"It's the opening music to the Mikado." Said Thaniel explained, referring to the performance that was the first he had played for Arthur Sullivan after Mori had made it possible for him to do so. "You said I should paint it … and the gloves because you have a hole in yours and you are always bloody cold ... and Osei made the sweets for me. She offered to teach me how to make them but I didn't want to bugger it up." 

All of it was so quintessentially Thaniel from the presentation to the jumbled explanation that Mori was touched. He wanted to grab Thaniel, tell him exactly how much the man meant to him, how much he needed him. But his voice was frozen. He couldn’t bear to say the words that might send Thaniel away from him forever. He squeezed Thaniel’s hand, leaned on his bare shoulder and hoped it was enough.

“It is wonderful. Thank you.”

Thaniel bloomed under the praise and kissed Mori so gently that Mori was afraid he would shatter like spun glass. For a minute the world seemed to stop still and Mori wanted to preserve the moment forever. In silence they both slipped down under the covers and fell into the familiar position of Thaniel's warm, strong body pressed into Mori’s back, lips a hairsbreadth from the back of his neck. Mori may not have known the depth of Thaniel’s feelings and he himself kept his own tightly locked together for fear of the inevitable rejection but at that moment, in the warm circle of Thaniel’s arms, he dared himself to dream.


End file.
